


First Time

by mmmdraco



Category: Bakuman
Genre: Comiket, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 10:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1506353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fukuda's first time selling doujinshi at Winter Comiket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aoigensou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoigensou/gifts).



> My friends are enabling enablers and I love them for it.

Fukuda was unusually on edge and he wasn't sure why. Yes, this was his first time selling doujin at the Winter Comiket, but he'd been there as a patron before and had sold his wares from before he was actually in Jump at a few smaller fan conventions. But, Comiket was big time, or at least as big time as his brain could think of. 

He hasn't really mentioned the doujinshi thing to, well, anyone. More than likely some of his assistants knew because he'd been putting tones on a page when they came in one day and it was a tone that he never used in his manga, but no one asked and he kept the pages under lock and key because he didn't want to get them mixed up with the rest of his manga. If he was drawing someone else's characters, it wouldn't matter much, but when he was drawing doujin for his own works? There had to be some separation there.

There were other mangaka who did it: making doujin for their own works. Sometimes, it just helped. He'd get going down a path and wish he could branch off somewhere just to see where it went, or he'd really like the dynamic between two characters and want to make them fuck but didn't feel like dumbing it down to shove into Jump, or he'd want to test out a new art style. It was extra work and he hadn't exactly sold many of his old books at those smaller shows, but he'd been online and had seen that somehow word with what his doujin "circle" name was had gotten out and forums were spreading it around that he would have a book here. He actually had three. Seeing the talk online had made him order quadruple the number of copies than what he'd been planning.

That was what it was, really, and he knew it. Four hundred copies each of three different doujinshi and he had no clue if he'd sell a single one. He hadn't cheaped out on the books, either, so all of the covers were full color and one had stamped gold foil and another had a texture pressed into it while the last had a translucent cover that overlaid the actual cover. He was eating ramen already. If he didn't do well that day, there were more sacrifices he was going to have to make.

The influx of people into the room startled him, making him realize just how much time he'd spent at his table just staring at things. He had to look strange because of it, which was probably the reason why none of the other artists had come over to try to sneak a peak. Still, it came as a shock that a portion of the line that was rushing in was making a beeline toward him. He looked to the tables to his sides and figured they were probably going for the table to his right that had art good enough to make it to at least Shounen Sunday or something. But, part of him also hoped...

As it was, he was down to his last box by the end of the first hour and his wrist hurt from autographing copies and shoving money into his cash box and there were some definite paper cuts he'd acquired in his haste. Hell, he'd made enough already to offset the costs and to treat himself and his assistants to something nice for dinner.

It shouldn't have surprised him when several of his rivals showed up, but it still did. They all bought copies and Fukuda muttered out all of his replies and told them he'd give them autographs when he felt like it. Still, it was nice to feel the support. It felt overwhelming, but in a great way.

By the time he'd been planning to take his lunch break came around, he had his things packed up, but he was sold out entirely. He'd kind of intended to set aside a copy of each for himself, but he had the test prints at home which was good enough for him. The extra yen in his pocket and the feeling of being in demand? That went beyond what he'd even though possible that day.

He had a name to finish that day and his editor was planning to stop by later to advise him on a side story he'd thought of making for the next manga volume release, but realizing that it didn't matter what his editor said because he could write that story anyway and still sell it at summer Comiket if he wanted... He stopped at an oden stand on the way back home for a beer and some food because the rush was just a little too much. It wasn't more powerful that the rush from getting into Jump the first time, but it was closer than he thought he'd ever come to reaching those heights again.


End file.
